How now? Wouldst thou likest to save over $120? Prithee, lend me thy ear and I will teach thee my ways!
First, bridle thy fastest stallion and make heed for CVS.
HALT. Didst thou remember thy coupons? Send back thy manservant at once.
Right. Back to thy local CVS.
Now, I must warn thee so that thou wouldst not keel over at the news, but by my faith, CVS hath several good deals! If thou purchasest $20 in certain products, they will giveth HALF OF IT BACK TO THEE (in Extra Care Bucks (which can then be used to buy anything thy heart desireth from CVS (but to make the most of it, prithee dost turn around and use it on another deal that will give thee more Extra Care Bucks (ECBs)))).
Thy first transaction shall consist of the following:
3 Halls Pro Health Defense @ $4 each = $12
4 Halls Naturals @ $2 each = $8
Thou hast now reached the desired total of $20. Beseech thy coupon organizer for two coupons for the aforementioned items totaling $1.35. Dost thou wish to savest another $4? Then thee shouldst have printed one of these before leaving the castle. For his lack of forethought, thy manservant must be punished.
After hiring a more worthy assistant and awaiting his return with a good-sized stock of $4 coupons, continue with thy transaction.
Thy new total is $14.65. Behold! Thy purse containeth an ECB of $14! Payest thy bill of $0.65 and receivest thy $10 ECB. Thy minions cheer thy efforts.
But thou art not done. Transaction #2:
Robitussin cough and cold 8 oz = $6
DayQuil 20ct = $6
Airborne Seasonal Relief 16ct = $9
Thy total is $21. Thy manservant cowers, but thou reassurest him that he hath no need for fear: ‘Twas not possible to attain a total closer to $20. He hath served you well.
Thy total is reduced by a $1.50 Dayquil coupon from yon local Sunday paper inserts. And a $3 Robitussin coupon can be sought here. After thy trusty $4 coupon, thy total is now $12.50. Thou payest with thy $10 ECB, and givest thy cashier her pittance: a mere $2.50.
Thou art but half-done. Ignore the calls for extra cashiers to alleviate the back-up thou hast caused. Thou art saving money.
Transaction #3
Children’s Tylenol 4oz = $5.50
Children’s Tylenol Plus Cold 4oz = $5.50
Motrin 80-100ct = $9
Thy manservant beameth. Thou beamest back. Thy total is $20. Handest the cashier thy $3 Tylenol coupon, trusty $4 coupon, and the $10 ECB from thy last order. Hark! Thy new total is but $3.
Thou art almost done.
Transaction #4:
Charmin Ultra 12 big rolls= $5.99
Bounty 8 pk = $6.49
Pantene hairspray = $3.67
Puffs tissues = $0.99×3 = $2.97
Dawn 12.6oz = $0.99
Thy total is $20.11. Once again, naught could be closer to $20, given the products available. Well done. Handest over thy $0.25 Bounty coupon, $0.25 Charmin coupon, $0.50 Puffs coupon, $0.50 Dawn coupon, $1 Pantene coupon, trusty $4 coupon, and $10 ECB. Thy new and final total is $3.61. However, this deal offereth a lowly $5 ECB.
As thou makest ready to leave the store, on a whim, thou criest out, “Doth thou offer any more free stuff, CVS?!”
And they will answer: “Aye! Yonder Beano! And mouthwash!”
“Forsooth!”
Transaction #5:
Beano To-Go 12 ct = 2.99
Crest ProHealth Night mouthwash 250mL = 3.29
“And doth thou offer any more ECB, CVS?”
“Aye! $3 in gratitude of thy business this past summer!” (Dost thou not know CVS giveth a percentage of thine expenditures back?!)
Thy cashier asketh for $6.28; thou givest thy $3 ECB and payest $3.28. Thy cashier giveth thee $6.28 in ECB. Thou hast made $3.
On to Walgreen’s with a vengeance! Bursting through the front doors, thou repeatest thy victory cry, “Giveth me thy free stuff!”
And they shall pileth thy booty upon thee:
Colgate Total Advanced Clean Toothpaste 4.2 oz
Pepcid Max Strength AC or Complete 8ct
Beano to Go 12 ct
Buckley’s 4 oz chest congestion or cough syrup
Breathe Again Nasal Spray 3.3 oz
Garnier Fructis 25.4oz
Ameal BP Capsules, 60 ct.
Thy faithful manservant handeth over a $1 coupon for Garnier Fructis (from thy local Sunday paper), a $1.50 coupon for Colgate Total, a $1 coupon for Beano, yet another $1 coupon for Beano (store coupons art compatible with manufacturer coupons, Marry!), and a $1 coupon for Pepcid AC.
The friendly wench behind the counter may asketh you for $52.33. But knowest in thy heart, dear mistriss, as thou handest over but $47.83, that thou hast made $4.50 in this, thy final transaction. Takest thou of the EasySaver book. Keepest thy receipt. Before the month is out, thou wilst mail in for a full rebate of all thy Walgreen’s bounty.
BEHOLD!
If all has gone according to plan, thou hast paid $14.06; and thou hast saved $127.66!
~~~
To learneth more from the master, clicketh here.
To seeth more frugal posts, clicketh here.
I’ve seen a lot of Walgreens/CVS excitement lately. I don’t have the time to search ads & coupons on the internet to do it, but the idea intrigues me. There are questions I’ve always had about the strategy.
– Do you need all that stuff? Like, was everything you bought on your shopping list for this week? Or would they have appeared on your shopping list, ever?
– Do the same things give you ECBs ever week? You can’t buy an 8-pack of paper towels every week- you wouldn’t use them. How is this a sustainable pattern, or do you just do it every once in a while?
– How do you store stuff you don’t immediately need in your apartment? We do a minimal amount of shopping at Costco, and even then have a hard time finding storage. Your apartment’s not that much bigger than ours, and you have twice as many people living there.
I’ll take my answers in either Olde or modern English 🙂
Joanna – (in modern English because I just don’t have that much <i>time</i>)
I completely understand about the lack of time prohibiting you! I have actually been contemplating posting my deals everytime, along with what coupons I used and where to find online coupons. That way all working wives and mothers would have to do is clip and organize coupons (does not take long, promise; clipping can be done while watching a favorite show!).
I do try to only get what I need, will eventually need, or what I know I can give away (like the blood pressure medication I recieved yesterday – it will go to my mom!) I may still be using those paper towels at Christmas of next year, but I will use them up. So, no, they weren’t on my shopping list for this week. But by buying them on sale and stocking up this week, I have alleviated my need for putting them on my list… for years.
The CVS and Walgreen’s deals come in both monthly and weekly varieties. The free-after-rebate deals from Walgreen’s were monthly. The mouthwash and Beano from CVS were monthly. Everything else was weekly. And there are limits as too how many times you can do each deal. The Proctor and Gamble deal (with the toilet paper and paper towels) can only be done once. The Beano, however, can be done five times! I’m not that gassy, so I chose to only take one. However, they might make good stocking stuffers for certain people…
So one month, I may stock up on toothepaste, and the next toilet paper. It all evens out.
As for storage, I have no answers. I have a black duffel bag full to the exploding point sitting in my bedroom closet, on top of which is piled everything that will not fit. And my booty from yesterday sits outside the closet door waiting for me to decide what to do with it. How I long for a basement!
Oh, and something I have not done, but have heard of people doing, is selling their overstocked freebies at garage sales! I think one might need a <i>garage</i> for this, though…
Wow! That sounds complicated. When I go back to the States and try this someday, I may have to drag you along and teach me the art of buying from CVS. 😉
Ok, How did you get started with this? I need to travel miles for a CVS, and not quite as far for Walgreens. However, We sometimes go in those directions and when we do I would like to take advantage of the deals. I take it I need a CVS card and the ads, but how do I get started from there? I will ask Jessica the same thing, but thought I would get advice from both you pros!
clipping can be done while watching a favorite show!
You’ve forgotten your audience, the one who doesn’t watch TV. 😉
Joanna, I felt the same way you did when i first started. I was thinking this is stupid! I don’t buy name brand stuff and even if I did I’d buy it at dollar general for half the price of CVS. Then I realized if you keep up with it, and buy the free stuff each month, you are getting name brand stuff for practically free.
I do skip over some things even if they are free because they’d never get used and I don’t feel like spending money on them- most of the time I skip things from Walgreen’s. I just started doing the Walgreen’s last month though, so anything I spent was out of pocket.
As far as the storing things goes… it’s quite amusing. Which i think is why i skip some weeks at CVS. if it’s not really good i don’t bother with it mostly because of the space issue. We have one closet for our whole apartment and very little cabinet space. Right now we have a rubbermaid 4 drawer thing in the bathroom, 2 drawers I use as my dresser and the other 2 have toothpaste and other random stuff in it, then the cabinet below the sink is also full of stuff. I don’t know where I am going to put the stuff I got last night! I give some of the stuff away, like toothpaste- since we have a zillion tubes. I’ve thought about selling some on ebay or something but for now I think I’ll continue to either keep it or share with family.
Joanna – Fine, then clip while IM’ing like I do. This does hinder progress somewhat, unless you’ve got a second pair of hands. 🙂
Peggie –
<b>Step one</b>: Get the Sunday paper
<b>Step two</b>: Clip the coupons and organize them by category. My categories are hair, body, make-up, oral, medicine, household cleaners, papers, house, misc.
<b>Step three</b>: Remove CVS flier from Sunday paper. If your paper doesn’t have one, then go to CVS.com. If you want to see the flier in advance, this forum might have one: http://forums.families.com/cvs,f533
<b>Step four</b>: Compare sales with coupons. Most of the time, CVS sales only reduce the price to what you would pay at Wal-Mart. But combine a coupon from the paper, the ECB deals, and the $4 coupon mentioned in the post above and you’ve got yourself a really good deal. The ECB deals are marked in your CVS flier.
The first month you do this, it will be an investment. You won’t have ECBs to spend. But if you keep coming back and turning your earned ECBs into more ECBs, then you have the potential of never spending cash at CVS again! (I say “potential” because even the masters have to shell out some change sometimes:))
If you have any more questions, please ask!
Will you move a CVS closer than 65 miles? 😉
Me thinkest thous hast done well, dear sister. I shall now bridle my faithful steed, Windstar, and flee to the nearest CVS.
I bid thee now farewell. ;0)
Peggie – 65 MILES?! I would suggest looking into buying your own CVS. Then spread the news about the crazy ECB deals.
Wait… then you’d make no money. 🙂
Michelle – You crack me up. “Windstar” is a fabulous name for a va- I mean horse…
You crack me up, Beth! 🙂
By the way, I love how the person with her own manservant is frugally pouncing on CVS deals. Should I be concerned about a woman who has a manservant around when her husband is gone all day? Or is “manservant” another name for “children”? 😉
This is fantastic! I started using CVS today. So far, so good. I hope to keep rolling over those ECBs.
That’s a lot of Beano
Thank you thank you thank you!! I can’t tell you how many times I want to go to Walgreens (don’t even get me started about CVS – I have none near me), but can’t figure out where people get the coupons etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. You just spelled it all out for me and now I can go and buy my beano (lol) and get paid for it!
So are you going to do this every month? Hint hint? You have tons of spare time, right???
I’m fairly new to the CVS shopping game – still learning. I’m impressed by your shopping talents! And loved the humor by the way. Way to go!
Ashley – I decided on a manservant rather than a maidservant because we here at TheNaturalMommy believe in equal rights. Men can do coupons and be assistants just as well as women. Well, they can do coupons and be assistants, anyway… 😛
Bonnie – I love that after reading through all that Olde English and all those good deals, that only thing you came away with was that I had bought two containers of Beano. Sigh.
Rachel – I’m glad I could help! Like I said in an earlier comment, I feel compelled to do this more often now that I know how many people find it useful! My husband suggested I charge $5 for my services. 🙂 Although charging $5 so someone could save $120 may sound acceptable, don’t expect a Paypal button to appear here anytime soon. 🙂
And as for the time commitment, yes, I did stay up way too late doing this. In fact, my baby woke up twice and had to be nursed back to sleep both times during the figuring of these deals. I just get so excited when I do this, though, and can’t stop until I’ve found the best deal out there! Then I look at the clock and realize it’s THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING. And I walk away from the computer slightly ashamed at myself.
The better I get, though, the less time it takes. (I’ve only been doing this since March).
Oh, wise one…I am not worthy! I am not worthy! (Picture me kowtowing). Thou art the princess…nay, the queen…of couponers!
I did thuswise several weeks ago with a Kellogg’s deal…buy $20, get $20 ECBs. Those ECBs helped pay for things we needed for a 12 hour car trip to Ohio. Free or cheap…either one is good!
Well, I found a 25 for new prescription link at the link you sent us to for the $4 coupons. I am waiting for my CVS card to come and then I will have a prescription transferred and then make my first trip for CVS deals. I am planning it meticulously as our CVS is about 25 minutes away!! But for the first investment I won’t have to spend much out of pocket since I will have a $25 gc from my transferred RX. Thank you so much for these posts. I will continue checking in with you to keep my deals organized!!! Hopefully I can really increase my mfr coupon arsenal between now and then as well!!
I have a question regarding using the 2 Beano coupons. When I printed the first one it was from the Walgreens website but it clearly says Manufacturer’s coupon. The second was from Cool Savings and was also a mfgs. coupon. How were you allowed to use both? Thanks so much.
Sue –
That Walgreen’s coupon was one that I found after I had already been to Walgreen’s! So I did not actually get to use it, and my savings were a bit less than what I mentioned. But I wanted to pass that link along to you so that you could save more.
That being said, I had assumed that, being a Walgreen’s coupon, it could be used with manufacturer coupons. The coupons in the Walgreen’s super saver catalog and flier can be used with manufacturer coupons. I assumed their website coupons were the same way.
Has anyone been able to successfully combine these coupons? Maybe you’re right and it can’t. Thank you for pointing that out! (You have to admit – it’s still good savings without that extra $1!)
As of yesterday I am a card-carrying CVS shopper! Trying to learn this and REALLY REALLY appreciate you taking the time to explain the details of your transactions. But what are these “$4 coupons” of which you speak?
Kim – CONGRATULATIONS! Many free (or almost free) things aawait you.
As for the $4/20 coupons, I found one that expires on 10/28 here: http://www.extracarerewards.com/welcome/welcome_101107.gif
Haha this kid says he got some Runescape hacks… think he’s kidding? Would that even be possible since RS is a server side MMORPG?
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